Recurring Nightmare
by Danny vs A Month
Summary: Trauma can sometimes bring people together. Especially when shared. Like the trauma of being trapped in a hellish parallel universe and chased by monsters, for example. However, even after escaping trauma, psychological scars remain. And those psychological scars can sometimes reopen. Not related to Evil Within 2, no idea what it's about.


I do not own Evil Within or any of the characters.

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Reunion

Sebastian groaned as he slowly pushed himself up off the ground. He truly hated this fucked up place. Whichever place it was. One moment he had had needles stabbing into his brain in order to somehow magically make him able to fire twelve shots out of a six-shooter revolver and to survive more serious wounds, not that surviving otherwise fatal wounds was necessarily rare in this warped reality, and the next moment he had found himself falling out of the chair and horizontally across the room and then into a picture of some cracked brick floor. Still, the augmentations had finished, and it never hurt to prepare. Especially after the encounters with both the freakish female thing with the black hair and freakishly long limbs and the behemoth with the safe for a head. God forbid he run into another of those things. God forbid he run into anything.

After everything he had seen and been through, he'd be so very happy if he didn't see a single thing beside the already hard to handle world around him the entire way to wherever he had to go to escape. Granted, he had no idea where that was. He honestly had no idea what he was actually doing. All he knew was that he had to find out if Joseph survived their last meeting with Kidman, and he also wanted to find Kidman. She definitely wasn't his favorite person, at the moment, but he felt like he owed it to her to save her. Whether because he had attacked her when he lost control, or because she was alive in this hellish world, he wasn't sure.

Sebastian looked around, carefully taking in the stone tunnels and the large square room around him. It looked like he was in some sort of crypt, or a bunker deep, deep underground. He sighed, picking up his revolver and walking away from the spot he had landed, heading into a tunnel at random and sweeping the empty and extremely dark hallway carefully for any sign of traps or freaks. He didn't want to call them zombies, necessarily, but that was pretty close.

Finally, he stopped as he reached a door, reaching out to the handle and carefully pushing it open. The entire door was wrought iron and it creaked loudly as it swung, but he didn't need to open it all the way. Once it was open enough, he slipped through the opening and found himself in a pitch black hallway. He groaned silently looking around. He lit his lantern, holding it up, and the light flooded the area, illuminating a pair of freaks instantly, one armed with an axe and the other with a broken bottle. He set the lantern down, stepping forward and ducking under the axe, catching the freak's arm and taking the axe, planting it in the other freak before pulling his knife, stabbing it into the first's head. He yanked his knife back out and let the freak drop, then picked up the lantern and walked away from the door, carefully following the hallway.

As he walked, the only sound was the ticking of his heels on the stone floor. The silence was practically suffocating. He switched his knife for his pistol again, slowly making his way forward. Finally, he stopped as he reached a corner. He peeked around it and saw that there was a torch up ahead, just before the tunnel opened into a massive room. Sebastian walked to the torch, taking it and putting his lantern away. He held the torch above himself as he walked into the room, the light revealing a massive empty room at first. Then, finally, the circle of light reached a hole in the floor. A couple of steps later, it found something int the center of the hole. A massive object made of what looked like bones sewn together with strips of bloody skin, broken bones and ribs sticking out of it like spikes. The construct was shaped into a cross, the arms having another section from the base to the end of each arm for support, giving it a sort of half-finished kite look as much as a cross. And there, hanging on the cross and impaled through the abdomen, both thighs, both feet, both upper arms, and both hands, was Kidman.

'Kidman!" Sebastian shouted, Kidman groaning and beginning to stir.

She was wounded heavily, aside from the spikes through her. She had a nasty gash on her left side that was bleeding fairly heavily, a puncture wound in her right shoulder that was bleeding heavily, and there was and assortment of smaller cuts and scratches covering her body. And the only reason he could see them all, was because her clothes were hanging off of her in rags, not even beginning to cover anything.

"Sebastian," Kidman groaned, slowly looking up at him. "Where...where am I?"

She tried to move her arm and shrieked in pain instantly, the scream intensifying as her body jerked in response to the pain. Finally, she looked down, taking in the sight of several spikes jutting from her body. She cried out in surprise and fear, looking up at Sebastian, allowing him to see the bruising and swelling taking up the right side of her face.

"Sebastian, help me!" Kidman shouted.

"I will," Sebastian said. "Just stay calm."

He looked around but there was no sign of any way to reach her, let alone a way to get her down. Suddenly, torches all along the walls blazed to life and Sebastian groaned as he saw several tunnels and the couple dozen freaks staggering out of them. He dropped the torch, raising his pistol but hesitated. He knew for a fact he didn't have enough ammo. And he also knew that they wouldn't be able to reach Kidman. It was probably five feet to the cross, and he had yet to see a freak successfully jump.

He turned, sprinting at the hole and leapt from the edge, landing hard on the cross and catching a pair of broken femurs barely holding on without them falling off the cross. He began to climb up the cross using the spikes, moving carefully and trying to avoid ribs. Finally, he reached Kidman, who was starting to struggle to stay awake from blood loss.

"Hang in there," Sebastian said. "I'll figure something out."

The freaks reached the hole and one of them pulled its arm back with an axe. Sebastian shot it in the head, dropping it, and another took its place, this one holding dynamite. Sebastian shot its arm, making it drop the stick then pulled himself up in front of Kidman. Almost the moment the stick exploded, Sebastian felt a knife drive itself into his back. He shouted in pain, barely able to hold onto the spikes he was clinging to. He turned, watching the freaks before putting his pistol away, drawing his crossbow instead and sticking an explosive grenade into the ground at their feet. He grit his teeth as it exploded, a piece of shrapnel stabbing into his shoulder, but the blast cleared a space. He leapt off the cross, landing on the ground and stood, slamming the cross into a freak's head before putting it away and pulling out his pump action shot gun, blasting several freaks away from himself. He spun, butt-stroking a freak across the jaw as it moved to slash him, then blasted another. An axe slammed into the axe, missing his wrist by an inch and he dropped the shotgun, jumping back to the edge of the hole and drawing his pistol again, opening fire. Freaks dropped quickly, but not nearly fast enough. Then, suddenly, they all stopped. One of the tunnels began to lighten as a flame appeared down it. Then, the light reached the room and was tossed aside, Sebastian ignoring it, in light of what had been carrying it.

"Get down!" Joseph shouted.

Sebastian dropped to the ground just as bullets began to fly over him, shredding the freaks. After a couple of seconds, it was over. Sebastian stood as Joseph tossed the now empty gun aside, sighing and plugging his ears to get rid of the ringing.

"Thanks," Sebastian sighed. "You saved my ass. Now, hurry and help me. We need to get Kidman down."

Joseph looked up at Kidman and was at Sebastian's side instantly. Just as they prepared to jump to the cross, however, the cross suddenly crumbled, leaving the bones that were impaling Kidman as they were as she fell.

"Kidman!" Joseph shouted, Sebastian catching his arm.

"We don't know what's down there," Sebastian said.

"We can't just abandon her!" Joseph said. "She's dying!"

Sebastian was silent for a moment before nodding, turning to the hole. He hesitated another moment as Joseph jumped, then followed. Darkness swallowed him instantly, and he felt himself picking up speed, barely able to keep himself from tumbling. Then, he opened his eyes, groaning and found himself lying on something lumpy and wet. Instinctively he knew he didn't want to look, but he pushed himself up anyway, looking down. Sure enough, he found himself lying on a massive pile of severed body parts roughly ten feet tall. He didn't even want to know how many people had parts in that pile. But after everything he had been through so far, it wasn't exactly the worst thing he had seen.

He slid down the pile of body parts and reached back, feeling his back was wet with his own blood from the knife. It had come out on its own, but it had left a bad cut in its place. He reached into his pocket, pulling out one of his two syringes and injecting himself. Pain raced through him and he shouted as his veins burned before the wound sealed itself. Once it was finished, he straightened up, dropping the syringe and pulling out his pistol, walking down the hallway he was in by the light of his lantern. He looked around the walls carefully. If Joseph had landed there, he would have been running to save Kidman. He wasn't exactly very inconspicuous about his feelings for her, though as far as Sebastian knew they were one-sided.

"Dammit Joseph," Sebastian sighed as he turned a corner, seeing nothing but a dark hallway. "You had better save her since you left me behind."

He began to jog down the hallway, the slapping of his feet on the stone echoing along the hallway. Finally, he saw a light up ahead, jogging toward it in time to see Joseph duck under a swipe from a tentacle about as big around as Sebastian's arm with spikes along the length of it. At the base of the tentacle was a hole with pieces of broken bone around it. There were a dozen more tentacles stretching out of the hole aside from the one attacking Joseph. There were two more spiked ones ready to attack, a spiked one wrapping around the tentacles' victim's right arm from wrist to mid-bicep, a spiked one in the same placement on the left arm, one on each leg from ankle to mid-thigh, holding the victim spread eagle, a smooth one wrapped around their throat, and then there was a smooth one wrapped around the victim's abdomen. All of the tentacles were obviously slowly tightening, judging by the agonized and terrified expression on the victim's bloodied and swollen face.

Sebastian's mouth fell open as he realized that the victim was actually Kidman. He was amazed she was still alive, though the tentacles would undoubtedly fix that within a few minutes at best. Sebastian shot at the base of the tentacle attacking Joseph, grazing it and a loud screeching noise echoed from below them as the tentacle retracted, Joseph bending forward and panting. Sebastian turned, shooting at the rest of the tentacles, hitting two before a spiked one shot forward, swiping at him, missing on account of Joseph tackling him out of the way. As they were standing, Joseph took the pistol, sprinting forward and firing at the tentacles rapidly. He hit several, making two of the ones ready to attack retract. However, the one Sebastian had grazed earlier suddenly shot out of the pit, wrapping around Joseph's gun arm then ripping backward, shredding the flesh along the arm and taking the gun. Joseph screamed in agony, falling to the ground as blood pooled under him, his body convulsing in pain. Sebastian sprinted to him but Joseph shoved him toward Kidman with his good arm.

"Help her!" Joseph forced out.

Sebastian pulled his shotgun out, aiming at the tentacles and firing. Several were blasted completely apart, leaving tentacles hanging from her right arm and both legs, the tentacle on her left arm holding her up and the one on her neck beginning to squeeze harder. He fired again, but the three attacking tentacles blocked it, being destroyed by the shot. Joseph tried to fire again but it was eyes widened before he heard a choking coughing noise from above him. He looked up in time to see Kidman throw her pistol. It hit the ground and skidded toward him. He grabbed it without a moment of hesitation, firing and hitting the tentacle around her neck. It released her instantly and she coughed once before screaming as the other tentacle squeezed. He shot that one as well before sprinting forward, jumping over the hole and catching her as she fell. As soon as he hit the floor, he pulled out his second syringe, injecting her. She screamed again as her wounds began to seal, agony plain on her face. Finally, it finished, her left arm being covered with jagged white scars, but aside from that she was fully healed.

"Are you okay?" Sebastian asked, Kidman nodding slowly, exhaustion from blood loss and pain weighing down on her. "Joseph, are you alright? Joseph?"

He turned as a groan reached his ears. Almost instantly, a hand grabbed his shirt, hurling him away from Kidman, sending him airborne across the room. He crashed into the room hard, groaning and looking up at Joseph as he picked Kidman up by the throat, growling as the same mutation symptoms he himself had possessed once before grew into place on Joseph. Joseph growled as he lifted Kidman of the ground, his ruined arm beginning to spasm before the remains of the left arm exploded off, leaving a much more muscular one behind with claws on its fingers.

"Joseph!" Sebastian shouted, pushing himself up, struggling to stay on his feet as his head throbbed painfully. "Put her down!"

He groaned as pain lanced through his head but Joseph ignored him. He opened his mouth to speak but pain lanced through his head again, dropping him to his knees. He recognized this pain. Sure enough, the edges of his vision began to turn red and he felt a growl tearing out of his throat. Kidman's eyes shifted over to him, terror clear in them. He could feel the change happening. The tears in his skin, the bleeding, the pain. He felt his body stand, his vision focusing on Kidman.

 _No!_ Sebastian thought. _Not again! I'm not doing this again! I refuse! I won't!_

His body shot forward, reaching out, claws on his fingers.

 _I won't!_

His body turned at the last second, tackling Joseph and beginning to fall into the hole with him. Joseph roared, slashing him with his new arm and Sebastian responded with a slash of his own claws. Then, he shoved Joseph just as a rock outcropping passed on the far wall of the pit. There was a sickening crack and Joseph began to flip, the back of his head touching his spine. Sebastian roared in triumph just as the red began to fade from his vision and he began to cough. Then, he grunted as he landed on something squishy, bouncing. He landed on his feet the next time, looking down as spiked tentacles began to grow around him. He slashed one with his knife then knelt, stabbing the thing below him rapidly. The tentacles shot down, wrapping around him rapidly but he continued to stab. Again and again he drove his knife into the thing until the tentacles caught his arm, beginning to lift him. He reached to his coat, feeling the tentacles' spikes digging into him. Finally, he pulled out an explosive arrow, dropping it into the gaping hole he had made before the tentacles threw him. He crashed into the wall of the pit just as the arrow exploded. There was a sickening, wet squealing sound before the thing began to flatten. Sebastian lay there as it deflated until he was lying on the floor of the pit, a tunnel on his left and his entire body covered in open puncture wounds.

He forced himself up, limping down the pathway, supporting himself on the wall. After several agonizing minutes, he left the tunnel, finding himself in a large cavern outside whatever structure he was in. He pushed off the wall and took two steps before falling. He groaned, feeling himself beginning to pass out. He heard something nearby growl but when he tried to look around, his vision finally faded.

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